1 Kings 3.
SOLOMON quickly became great. He made an alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and married his daughter, bringing her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem. Thus he prefigures the Lord Jesus in that coming day when He will establish rule over, not only Israel but, the whole earth. The daughter of Pharaoh coming under the protection of Israel’s God, speaks of the Gentiles of that day who will believe the gospel preached to them, and be converted (see Rev. 7:99After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; (Revelation 7:9)).
But though David’s faith led him beyond his people’s state before God, this was not the case with Solomon. He was on a spiritual level with them, though he loved the Lord, and walked in the statutes of David his father (verse 3). Gibeon, where the altar and the tabernacle were, attracted both king and people, rather than the ark of the covenant which was in Jerusalem, whither David had brought it.
It must have been a grand sight when a thousand burnt offerings were sacrificed at Gibeon, but Solomon’s father’s heart habitually sought the Lord Himself; the ark, figure of His presence, was the chief object to him. It has been rightly said,— “Better to be little and despised at the ark, than to possess the glory of the kingdom and to worship on high places.”
Notwithstanding that Solomon was not the spiritual man, the exercised believer that his father David was, the Lord appeared to the young king in Gibeon in a dream, and asked him what he wished. Solomon answered wisely, that he desired an “understanding heart” to judge the people. His wish was granted, and he was given wisdom beyond all others; and besides this, great riches and honor. He now returned to Jerusalem, his heart touched with the grace of God, and offered up burnt offerings before the ark of the covenant.
Presently Solomon’s wisdom was put to a severe test when two women came to him, both claiming the one living baby they brought, and each denying being the mother of the baby which had died. There was no witness to establish the word of either woman, but Solomon with great wisdom, drew out the true mother’s heart by proposing to cut the living baby in two, that each woman should have half the body. The real mother, anguished at the thought of killing her child, would rather the other woman should have him, than that he should die, but the other, having lost her own baby, was quite willing to see Solomon’s proposal carried out.
He at once was able to discern which woman was the real mother of the child, and he said, “Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother of the child.”
The decision of the king was told all over the land, and it increased his renown.
ML 05/01/1927